Systems and methods for event attendance notification

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for event attendance notification are provided. A representative systems includes a mobile device operative to: receive member information corresponding to members of a social network; receive event information corresponding to a first event, designated to occur at a first location, wherein at least a first of the members is scheduled to attend the first event; and responsive to determining that the current location of the first of the members corresponds to the event information, enable attendance information to be sent to others of the members of the social network indicating that the first of the members is at the first event.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to event attendancenotification in a social network environment.

BACKGROUND

Over the years, portable handheld devices such as smartphones havebecome prevalent. With the rapid development in communicationtechnology, smartphones have become an integral part of many people'slives given the portability of smartphones, the convenient access to theInternet, and the growing number of applications available onsmartphones. With the wide popularity of social networking, communitiesof users often stay connected through the Internet. Unfortunately,although the social demands for staying connected are tending toincrease, there are times when meeting these demands become somewhattaxing, particularly when a user is trying to keep up with a busyschedule.

SUMMARY

Briefly described, one embodiment, among others, is an event attendancenotification system that comprises a mobile device that is operative to:receive member information corresponding to members of a social network;receive event information corresponding to a first event, designated tooccur at a first location, wherein at least a first of the members isscheduled to attend the first event; and responsive to determining thatthe current location of the first of the members corresponds to theevent information, enable attendance information to be sent to others ofthe members of the social network indicating that the first of themembers is at the first event.

Another embodiment is a method for event attendance notification,comprising: receiving member information corresponding to members of asocial network; receiving event information corresponding to a firstevent, designated to occur at a first location, wherein at least a firstof the members is scheduled to attend the first event; and responsive todetermining that the current location of the first of the memberscorresponds to the event information, enabling attendance information tobe sent to others of the members of the social network indicating thatthe first of the members is at the first event.

Another embodiment is a computer-readable medium having stored thereoncomputer-executable instructions, which, when executed by a computerprocessor, enable performance of the method comprising: receiving memberinformation corresponding to members of a social network; receivingevent information corresponding to a first event, designated to occur ata first location, wherein at least a first of the members is scheduledto attend the first event; and responsive to determining that thecurrent location of the first of the members corresponds to the eventinformation, enabling attendance information to be sent to others of themembers of the social network indicating that the first of the membersis at the first event.

Other systems, methods, features, and advantages of the presentdisclosure will be or may become apparent to one with skill in the artupon examination of the following drawings and detailed description. Itis intended that all such additional systems, methods, features, andadvantages be included within this description, be within the scope ofthe present disclosure, and be protected by the accompanying claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the disclosure can be better understood with referenceto the following drawings. The components in the drawings are notnecessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearlyillustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Moreover, in thedrawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a networked environment in which anexemplary embodiment of a system for event attendance notification isimplemented.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting an exemplary embodiment of a method forevent attendance notification such as may be performed by the systemshown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a mobile device shown inFIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an alternative networked environment inwhich another exemplary embodiment of a system for event attendancenotification is implemented.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are flowcharts depicting alternative embodiments ofmethods for event attendance notification.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Having summarized various aspects of the present disclosure, referencewill now be made in detail to that which is illustrated in the drawings.While the disclosure will be described in connection with thesedrawings, there is no intent to limit it to the embodiment orembodiments disclosed herein. Rather, the intent is to cover allalternatives, modifications and equivalents included within the spiritand scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

Systems and methods for event attendance notification are provided that,in some embodiments, permit a user of a mobile device who is member of asocial network to provide information associated with attendance of anevent to other members of the social network. By way of example, such anevent can be scheduled in a calendar of the user and attendanceinformation can be sent to the other members when a determination ismade that the user has arrived at the location at which the event isscheduled to occur. In some embodiments, the mobile device includeslocation determination capability and the calendar is implemented as afunction of social network server that facilitates the social network.Additionally, the attendance information can be configured as auser-defined message that is automatically sent from the mobile devicein some embodiments, or as a status update posted to a website hosted bya social network server, among other configurations.

A description of an embodiment of a system for event attendancenotification in a networked environment is now described followed by adiscussion of the operation of various components within the system. Inthis regard, FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a networked environment inwhich an exemplary embodiment of a system for event attendancenotification is implemented.

As shown in FIG. 1, event attendance notification system 100 includesmobile devices 102, 104 and 106 communicatively coupled via acommunication network 108. Each of the mobile devices may be embodied asa mobile computing device such as, for example and without limitation, asmartphone that incorporates cellular telephone functionality. Notably,the communications network can use one or more of various communicationstypes such as, for example and without limitation, cellular and Wi-Ficommunications.

Users of mobile devices 102, 104 and 106 are associated with a socialnetwork 108 that enables the users to interact with each other with themobile devices. Typically, a social network is facilitated by a websitethat may require a registration and login prior to use. However,regardless of how such a social network is implemented (be it web-basedor not), the functionality of concern involves the ability to provideinteraction among a limited group of members, as may be established bythe members themselves. For instance, one manner to add a member to asocial network may involve “friending” a member, while removing a memberfrom a social network may involve “unfriending” the member. For thepurpose of the example presented in FIG. 1, the limited group of membersincludes the users of mobile devices 102, 104 and 106.

In operation, event attendance notification system 100 facilitatescorrelation of information related to activities of members of thesocial network. Specifically, system 100 correlates information thatidentifies members of the social network with location information andevent information pertaining to those members. As a result of suchcorrelating, members of the social network can be updated as to whetherother members attend (e.g., have arrived at) an event.

The aforementioned functions can be performed by various components invarious embodiments. For example, the functionality can be highlydistributed across a network or less so by use of functions performed onlocal devices, as in the case of mobile device 102.

In this regard, mobile device 102 includes an event attendancemonitoring system 120, which can be implemented in numerous ways suchas, for example and without limitation, an application executing on themobile device. In operation, system 120 receives member information touniquely identify members of the social network (in this case, users ofmobile devices 102, 104 and 106). Additionally, system 120 receivesevent information corresponding to an event that at least one of themembers is scheduled to attend. For example, the event information mayinclude a location at which the event is to occur, a time that the eventis scheduled to begin, an event description, an attendance/invite list,and a time that the event is scheduled to end. The event information canbe resident in various forms in various locations such as, for exampleand without limitation, a calendar application synchronized with themobile device and a web-based event scheduler.

System 120 also receives location information corresponding to a currentlocation of the member that is scheduled to attend the event. In thiscase, the member is the user of mobile device 102 and the locationinformation corresponds to the determined location of mobile device 102.It should be noted that various methods of determining the location of amobile device can be used.

Responsive to determining that the current location of the member (basedon the location of the associated mobile device) corresponds to theevent information, system 120 enables attendance information to be sentto members of the social network. In some embodiments, correlation ofthe current location of the member with the event information is basedon determining that the mobile device is within a predetermined distancefrom a specified event location within a predetermined period of time.By way of example, the predetermined period of time can include a windowof time that includes the event start time (but can include any part ofthe event duration—to, for example, observe a “late arrival” by the userto an event).

Attendance information can be provided in various forms and can beprovided in various manners. For instance, in some embodiments,attendance information can take the form of a message that isautomatically sent from a mobile device (e.g., device 102) to othermembers of the social network (e.g., to devices 104 and 106). Such amessage may be a user-defined message; for example, “I just wanted tolet you know that I am at [event name automatically inserted here].” Byway of further example, the system may prompt the member to send amessage (e.g., a user-preselected message or a “canned” message).

In some embodiments, an event attendance monitoring system can beoperative to receive invitation information corresponding to a request(e.g., an electronic meeting invitation) for a member to attend anevent. Responsive to the invitation information, the system may update adatabase of such events that can be monitored for correlation asdescribed before. In some embodiments, updating of the database ofevents is performed automatically responsive to determining that theinvitation is from one of the members of the social network, forexample.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting an exemplary embodiment of a method forevent attendance notification such as may be performed by mobile device102 of FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the method includes the steps of:receiving member information corresponding to members of a socialnetwork (block 152); receiving event information corresponding to afirst event that is to occur at a first location (block 154); andenabling attendance information to be sent to others of the members ofthe social network responsive to determining that the current locationof the member, who is scheduled to attend the first event, correspondsto the event (block 156).

In some embodiments, the current location of a user can be checkedagainst multiple event locations. Such a configuration could be used todetermine whether the user has moved from one event to another, or haschosen to skip a first scheduled event in order to attend asubsequently-scheduled or concurrently-scheduled event. In someembodiments, the scheduled start time and/or duration of an event can beused in determining whether a user is attending an event. For example,if the user is in proximity of a location associated with a scheduledevent within 15 minutes of the event start time or during the scheduledevent, attendance of the event may be determined.

Referring back to FIG. 1, an event attendance monitoring system 130 isimplemented by mobile device 106 that functions in a manner similar tothat described with respect to mobile device 102. However, mobile device104 lacks an event attendance monitoring system. Despite the lack of anevent attendance monitoring system being resident on mobile device 104,comparable functionality may be perceived. Notably, much of thefunctionality can be provided by another device.

In this regard, correlating member information, event information andlocation information for a user of mobile device 104 can be performed bya remote event attendance monitoring system (e.g., system 130). In sucha configuration, system 130 of mobile device 106 would be operative toreceive information associated with the user of mobile device 104. Notethat, in some embodiments, mobile device 104 could communicate itslocation information to mobile device 106. Additionally, oralternatively, mobile device 106 could engage in a form of localcommunication with mobile device 104, indicating that mobile device 104is generally co-located with mobile device 106. As such, mobile device106 may use its current location information for mobile device 104.

Thereafter, responsive to determining that the current location ofmobile device 104 corresponds with an associated event, system 130 couldprovide attendance information to members of the social network. In thiscase, the attendance information could be provided in the form of amessage (e.g., a text message) to mobile devices 102 and 106.

FIG. 3 illustrates mobile device 102 shown in FIG. 1. As describedearlier, mobile device 102 will typically be embodied as a smartphonebut may also be embodied in any one of a wide variety of wired and/orwireless computing devices. As shown in FIG. 3, mobile device 102includes a processing device (processor) 202, input/output interfaces204, a display 206, a touchscreen interface 208, a network interface210, a memory 212, and operating system 214, a mass storage 216 and anaccelerometer 218, with each communicating across a local data bus 220.Additionally, mobile device 102 incorporates an event attendancemonitoring system 120, which is depicted as including event information232, attendance information 234 and location information 236, althoughthe location of information 232, 234 and 236 could vary.

The processing device 202 may include any custom made or commerciallyavailable processor, a central processing unit (CPU) or an auxiliaryprocessor among several processors associated with the mobile device102, a semiconductor based microprocessor (in the form of a microchip),a macroprocessor, one or more application specific integrated circuits(ASICs), a plurality of suitably configured digital logic gates, andother electrical configurations comprising discrete elements bothindividually and in various combinations to coordinate the overalloperation of the system.

The memory 212 can include any one of a combination of volatile memoryelements (e.g., random-access memory (RAM, such as DRAM, and SRAM,etc.)) and nonvolatile memory elements. The memory typically comprisesnative operating system 214, one or more native applications, emulationsystems, or emulated applications for any of a variety of operatingsystems and/or emulated hardware platforms, emulated operating systems,etc. For example, the applications may include application specificsoftware which may comprise some or all the components of the mobiledevice 102. In accordance with such embodiments, the components arestored in memory and executed by the processing device. Note thatalthough depicted separately in FIG. 2, event attendance monitoringsystem 120 may be resident in memory such as memory 212.

Touchscreen interface 208 is configured to detect contact within thedisplay area of the display 206 and provides such functionality ason-screen buttons, menus, keyboards, etc. that allows users to navigateuser interfaces by touch. For some embodiments, the mobile device 102further comprises an accelerometer 218 (or gyro) configured to detectmotion, vibration and/or orientation of the mobile device 102.

One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the memory 214can, and typically will, comprise other components which have beenomitted for purposes of brevity. Note that in the context of thisdisclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores one or moreprograms for use by or in connection with an instruction executionsystem, apparatus, or device. With further reference to FIG. 3, networkinterface device 210 comprises various components used to transmitand/or receive data over a networked environment such as depicted inFIG. 1. When such components are embodied as an application, the one ormore components may be stored on a non-transitory computer-readablemedium and executed by the processing device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an alternative networked environment inwhich another exemplary embodiment of a system for event attendancenotification is implemented. As shown in FIG. 4, system 300 includesmobile devices 302 and 304 that are communicatively coupled via acommunication network 310. Each of the mobile devices may be embodied asa mobile computing device such as, for example and without limitation, asmartphone that incorporates cellular telephone functionality. Notably,the communications network can use one or more of various communicationstypes such as, for example and without limitation, cellular and Wi-Ficommunications.

Users of mobile devices 302 and 304 are associated with a social networkthat enables the users to interact with each other using the mobiledevices. In this embodiment, the social network is facilitated by awebsite that is hosted by social network server 320. As such, server 320facilitates interaction among a limited group of members, as may beestablished by the members themselves. For the purpose of the examplepresented in FIG. 4, the limited group of members includes the users ofmobile devices 302 and 304.

Additionally, server 320 implements an event attendance monitoringsystem 330 that facilitates correlation of information related toactivities of members of the social network. Specifically, system 330correlates information that identifies members of a social network withlocation information and event information pertaining to those members.As a result of such correlating, members of the social network can beupdated as to whether members attend an event.

In order to facilitate the aforementioned functionality, various aspectsmay be performed by one or more of the mobile devices 302, 304. In thiscase, mobile device is operative to perform, at least in part, themethod depicted in the flowchart of FIG. 5. Specifically, the methodincludes: receiving member information corresponding to members of asocial network (block 352); receiving event information corresponding toa first event that is to occur at a first location (block 354); andproviding location information corresponding to the current location ofa mobile device so that a correspondence between the current locationand the location of the event is determined (block 356). It should benoted that in some embodiments, a mobile device can be configured toreceive event information (e.g., event information 306) by syncing witha calendar of events that resides on a different device or website.

With respect to operation of event attendance monitoring system 330,system 330 is operative to perform, at least in part, the methoddepicted in the flowchart of FIG. 6. Specifically, the method includes:receiving member information corresponding to members of a socialnetwork (block 362); receiving event information corresponding to afirst event that is to occur at a first location (block 364); receivinglocation information corresponding to the current location of a mobiledevice associated with one of the members (366); and providingattendance information to indicate that the member is attending thefirst event responsive to determining that the current locationcorresponds to the event information (block 368). In some embodiments,providing attendance information includes updating the posted status ofthe member at the social network website. As such, the mobile devicesinteract with the event attendance monitoring system of the socialnetwork server at least to the extent that the system is able to receiveinformation for correlation. Thereafter, the system may communicate withone or more of the mobile devices, such as by providing attendanceinformation to the mobile devices.

Various information (e.g., event information) can be received fromvarious components for use by an attendance monitoring system. Forinstance, event information 306 (which is associated with the user ofmobile device 302) is not provided to event attendance monitoring system330 by mobile device 302. In this case, event information 306 isresident on a separate component (e.g., a calendar application residenton a laptop) that is not synced with mobile device 302. However, system330 is provided with access to event information 330.

If embodied in software, it should be noted that each block depicted inthe accompanying flowcharts represents a module, segment, or portion ofcode that comprises program instructions stored on a non-transitorycomputer readable medium to implement the specified logical function(s).In this regard, the program instructions may be embodied in the form ofsource code that comprises statements written in a programming languageor machine code that comprises numerical instructions recognizable by asuitable execution system such as the mobile device 102 shown in FIG. 1.The machine code may be converted from the source code, etc. If embodiedin hardware, each block may represent a circuit or a number ofinterconnected circuits to implement the specified logical function(s).Additionally, although the flowcharts show specific orders of execution,it is to be understood that the orders of execution may differ.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments are merelyexamples of possible implementations. Many variations and modificationsmay be made to the above-described embodiments without departing fromthe principles of the present disclosure. All such modifications andvariations are intended to be included herein within the scope of thisdisclosure and protected by the following claims.

1. An event attendance notification system, comprising: a mobile deviceoperative to: receive member information corresponding to members of asocial network; receive event information corresponding to a firstevent, designated to occur at a first location, wherein at least a firstof the members is scheduled to attend the first event; and responsive todetermining that the current location of the first of the members iswithin a predetermined distance of the first location such that thecurrent location corresponds to the event information, automaticallysend attendance information to others of the members of the socialnetwork indicating that the first of the members is at the first event;automatically determine that the current location of the first of themembers corresponds to second event information associated with a secondevent; and automatically send second attendance information to theothers of the members indicating that the first of the members is at thesecond event.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device isfurther operative to determine a current location of the first of themembers.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein, in receiving the eventinformation corresponding to the first event, the mobile device isfurther operative to receive information associated with an electroniccalendar.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the electronic calendar issynchronized with the mobile device. 5.-6. (canceled)
 7. The system ofclaim 1, further comprising a social network server operative to linkthe members of the social network and facilitate communication betweenthe members via web-based interaction.
 8. The system of claim 7,wherein, in enabling the attendance information to be sent, the mobiledevice is further operative to automatically provide information to thesocial network server such that the others of the members are updatedabout attendance of the event via social network server.
 9. The systemof claim 1, wherein the attendance information is a user-definedmessage.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is furtheroperative to receive invitation information corresponding to aninvitation to attend the first event and update a database of suchevents with the invitation information.
 11. The system of claim 10,wherein updating of the database of events is performed automatically bythe mobile device responsive to determining that the invitationinformation is from one of the members of the social network.
 12. Amethod for event attendance notification, comprising: receiving, at afirst mobile device, member information corresponding to members of asocial network; receiving, at the first mobile device, event informationcorresponding to a first event, designated to occur at a first location,wherein at least a first of the members associated with the first mobiledevice is scheduled to attend the first event; receiving, at the firstmobile device, information associated with a second mobile device of asecond of the members of the social network, the information associatedwith the second mobile device being received at the first mobile devicevia a communication network; responsive to determining that the currentlocation of the first of the members is within a predetermined distanceof the first location such that the current location corresponds to theevent information, automatically sending attendance information, via thefirst mobile device, to others of the members of the social networkindicating that the first of the members is at the first event; andresponsive to determining that the current location of the second of themembers is within a predetermined distance of the first location suchthat the current location of the second of the members corresponds tothe event information, automatically sending attendance information, viathe communications network, to others of the members of the socialnetwork indicating that the second of the members is at the first event.13. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining a currentlocation of the first of the members.
 14. The method of claim 12,wherein the determining a current location of the first of the memberscomprises automatically determining the current location using a mobiledevice. 15.-16. (canceled)
 17. The method of claim 12, wherein receivingevent information comprises accessing a calendar of events stored on amobile device associated with the first of the members.
 18. The methodof claim 12, wherein receiving event information comprises receiving anevent invitation from another of the members of the social network. 19.The method of claim 12, wherein: each of receiving member information,receiving event information, determining a current location and enablingattendance information to be sent is performed automatically on a mobiledevice associated with the first of the members; and the currentlocation is based on a position of the mobile device.
 20. Anon-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium having stored thereoncomputer-executable instructions, which, when executed by a computerprocessor, enable performance of the method comprising: receiving, at afirst mobile device, member information corresponding to members of asocial network; receiving, at the first mobile device, event informationcorresponding to a first event, designated to occur at a first location,wherein at least a first of the members associated with the first mobiledevice is scheduled to attend the first event; receiving, at the firstmobile device, information associated with a second mobile device of asecond of the members of the social network, the information associatedwith the second mobile device being received at the first mobile devicevia a communication network; responsive to determining that the currentlocation of the first of the members is within a predetermined distanceof the first location such that the current location corresponds to theevent information, automatically sending attendance information toothers of the members of the social network indicating that the first ofthe members is at the first event; and responsive to determining thatthe current location of the second of the members is within apredetermined distance of the first location such that the currentlocation of the second of the members corresponds to the eventinformation, automatically sending attendance information to others ofthe members of the social network indicating that the second of themembers is at the first event.